From Opus

Photo by Jan Van den Broeck
St Lucia, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Ploceus xanthopterus

[edit] Identification

Length 15 cm.

Breeding adult male: Bright yellow with a chestnut face, and throat; chestnut does not extend onto the forecrown (as it does in Northern Brown-throated Weaver, Rueppell's Weaver and Cape Weaver). The eyes are dull reddish brown.

[edit] Distribution

Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

[edit] Taxonomy

Ploceus xanthopterus has three subspecies:^[1]

• P. x. castaneigula

• Extreme north-eastern Namibia, Caprivi Strip (Namibia), south-western Zambia and northern Botswana

• P. x. xanthopterus

• Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and north-eastern Zimbabwe

• P. x. marleyi

• Extreme southern coastal Mozambique and coastal KwaZulu-Natal (eastern South Africa).

[edit] Habitat

Forest and scrub; breeds in reedbeds.

[edit] Behaviour

Diet includes seeds, berries, flowers and insects.

[edit] Vocalisation

A soft zweek, zweek and a swizzling song.

[edit] Breeding

Polygynous and territorial. Males may breed singly or in colonies of up to 300 nests. Builds a rather untidy nest over water in reedbeds; the nest has no entrance tube. Two to three eggs are incubated for 14-17 days by the female. The nestling period is 14-19 days; young are fed by the female only.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Hockey, PAR, WRJ Dean, and PG Ryan, eds. 2005. Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa. 7th ed. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. ISBN 978-0620340533
3. Sinclair, I and P Ryan. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691118154

• List of references

[edit] External Links